Book excerpt: Beneath the Surface
This section of Lynn M Thomas’ history of skin lighteners considers Steve Biko’s role in raising consciousness and pushing the ‘Black is Beautiful’ campaign in South Africa. LYNN THOMAS Black Consciousness and biomedical opposition AT A marketing conference held in Durban in 1969, one presenter, Mr A Tiley, expressed an abiding optimism in South Africa’s skin lightener trade. Tiley explained that another business consultant, a recent immigrant – likely from the United States – had offered a “misguided” prediction: political independence elsewhere in Africa and the US Black Power movement with its affirmation “Black Is Beautiful” signaled the trade’s long-term…